Energy Gates
Sat, 12/18/2010 - 08:48
Evolution
Legacy Username
The in-game "extra", sold at 3 energy a piece, offering only a few treasure boxes and sometimes a vitapod. I must say, it's far from worth its price.
3 Energy gives you:
A. a Vitapod which spawns regularly throughout the game + 2 (green!) treasure boxes.
B. an average of 6 (also green) treasure boxes.
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(A) is simply giving 1/3rd of a level-cost for something you find a lot more than 3 times in the actual level. Even more so, you don't get any monsters to kill for that 3 energy, so that increases the loss even more.
(B) is slightly better than (A), but still not worth the 3 energy. Throughout the level you find at least 10+ treasure boxes, along with a lot of monsters that drop crowns, heat, materials and an occasional item. So here again, not worth the energy cost at all.
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A few suggestions:
* Remove the vitapod energy door? Unless there are people who do find this Vitapod a big value-adder, then no need to pay attention to this suggestion.
* I have left out a (C). Some energy doors also have a Stranger behind them. Personally, these are the only energy doors I find worth the 3 energy. When I'm looking for that 1 unfindable recipe, an extra Stranger for only 3 energy is well worth it considering you only find ~1 stranger for every 40 energy-run to a Terminal. A suggestion here would be to add this type of energy door a lot more often!
* Replace the green treasure boxes with red ones, and increase the number you put there. Say, 10 or 15 in total? This might sound like a lot, but for those who have seen the core several times now.. Those 20 red treasure boxes are hardly worth the 10 energy you spend on that final gate.
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Any opinions on this issue?
Sun, 12/19/2010 - 03:32
#2
Pupu
Legacy Username
Currency
Then again, 3 energy are 1 cent. 1 cent!
They could be red boxes though.
Mon, 12/20/2010 - 02:06
#3
Kaybol
Legacy Username
You don't have to open the
You don't have to open the door. :P I know I usually don't.
Mon, 12/20/2010 - 02:12
#4
Bolgron
hiya
I usually don't. But it'd be nice that if we did there'd actually be something nice there; like red boxes. Then I WOULD open the doors, wander in, and cross my fingers.
Green boxes, well they aren't worth the energy ;)
Mon, 12/20/2010 - 02:15
#5
Kaybol
Legacy Username
Meh, there can't be something
Meh, there can't be something nice behind every energy door. Just like there can't be a nice drop after every tough-as-hell monster you defeat.
Sometimes loot is just unimpressive. Makes it even more fun when you loot something good.
Mon, 12/20/2010 - 03:05
#6
Evolution
Legacy Username
Agger, the whole point of an
Agger, the whole point of an energy door is to get something worth-while in return for your spend energy though :P Why else would you put it in the game, if nobody is going to open it anyway?
Mon, 12/20/2010 - 03:15
#7
Kaybol
Legacy Username
The whole point of an energy
The whole point of an energy door is to tempt people to spend their energy ;) oh sorry, am I viewing this from OOO's perspective? ^^ Let me turn this around: what's the point of an energy door if the content behind it is *always* worth it?? Then you could just as well have no door at all.
Benamas also succesfully pointed out it can be worth it, if you're not going to spend your mist energy on anything else anyway.
And in the end energy doors are a lottery. Not everybody likes those, but that's a fate all game features share. :)
Mon, 12/20/2010 - 03:48
#8
Evolution
Legacy Username
My suggestions didn't go in
My suggestions didn't go in the direction of your 3 energy *always* being worth it. Increasing the amount of treasure boxes increases your chance on something good, but it's still a matter of luck. From Core experiences, those 20 red treasure boxes have never given me anything good so far :P The only point I wanted to make with my OP is that right now, your energy is only well-spend if you're incredibly lucky at treasure boxes drops. Wouldn't it be better that you only need to be simply lucky in order to get some value out of your spend energy? It'll still be a lottery, but one with better odds than about 0% chance on anything valuable?
Mon, 12/20/2010 - 04:04
#9
Kharnor
Legacy Username
No-one's saying that energy
No-one's saying that energy doors should always have content that is worth more than the entry price. They are saying they should have content that has a good chance of being worth the entry price, on average: i.e., red chests instead of green, and a few more of them; not "all energy doors give you X crowns".
Yes it should be a lottery, but there's no point in a lottery with $2 tickets and a $2.10 jackpot.
Mon, 12/20/2010 - 13:22
#10
BehindCurtai
Legacy Username
The vitapod does make sense
The vitapod does make sense in a 3 or 4 player party. I've now seen more than enough parties where someone is desperately short on health-max.
Mon, 12/20/2010 - 13:24
#11
Evolution
Legacy Username
I haven't o.O unless you get
I haven't o.O unless you get such a gate in your first depth perhaps, but else you find plenty of vitapods?
i always open the energy doors since
a) i often tend to have leftover mist energy when i'm done playing for the day and don't care if it's worth it OR
b) i know i'm going to get all my energy back when the preview event is over so I have no qualms about spending it
BUT i'm sure point A doesn't apply to most people and B won't apply to me when the game goes to release, so in addition to the doors probably not being worth the energy now, they certainly won't be worth the energy in the future
here's another suggestion:
* if the 'use extra energy mid-level for more loot' exchange is considered important to how the game works, i say reduce the cost per door to a mere 1 energy so that the cost isn't as wildly disproportionate to the reward
(for a similar cost-reward discrepancy, see the autocannons -- they're fixed in place so they get maybe a couple kills, blah)
with the changes to vitapods from how they used to be, it's pretty likely that the vitapods from energy doors will rarely even be USABLE, much less worth the energy